Mark McMillan is a senior lecturer at Melbourne Law School, the 2013 NAIDOC scholar of the year, and a board member of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. Here, he brings his vast experience to bear in examining Indigenous identity and the law.

Highlighting the difference between freedoms and protections when it comes to Indigenous peoples – and why Indigenous identity is still intrinsically linked with discrimination – Mark gives an insider’s perspective on several contentious issues including the 2011 Eatock vs Bolt case, in which columnist Andrew Bolt and his employers were found by the Federal Court to be in breach of the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act for publishing articles about fair-skinned Indigenous Australians in 2009. Mark analyses the efficacy of the Racial Discrimination Act, particularly in relation to freedom of speech.